Craft Category: Artifacts

The report is focused on performance-based funding and the costs in online learning programs. This study examines the variety of funding models for K-12 online learning, explores adequacy costs, and outlines the guiding principles of performance-based funding to reward outcomes. As state policy makers consider performance-based funding options in education, this report provides recommendations and literature to expand the research base in support of equity, closing the achievement gap and increased student outcomes.

There is a new conversation taking place in public education on creating systemic incentives through school finance to encourage schools to innovate and be rewarded for positive student outcomes and performance. What if education funding was not based on seat-time, but on rewarding student performance? Performance-based funding is a term that captures this new concept.

The concept of performance-based funding is fairly straightforward—reward public education programs based on measurable student learning performance outcomes including course completion and competency development. It is also important to consider performance-based funding as a multi-step policy evolution from course completion to competency development. It is important to understand the idea that course completion-based funding is a step towards performance-based funding but is not the same as competency-based funding.

This report provides an overview of how competency-based learning can provide the skills and training necessary to develop a next generation workforce. The paper discusses the new skills that educators will need, policy shifts that will need to occur, pre-service and credentialing, professional development, and evaluation. They provide case studies, including Western Governors University Teachers College and New Hampshire’s approach to teacher evaluation as promising practices.

Equity in education has been a basic tenet of public education in the United States, made explicit by civil rights legislation throughout the years. Unfortunately, legislation alone does not guarantee that all students will be provided with the access and equity necessary to take full advantage of the educational opportunities all students are entitled to.

The increasing role of technology to deliver content and instruction presents challenges for all educational programs, including blended and online learning. The goal of this publication is to raise awareness amongst educators, especially those in the blended and online community, of the importance of ensuring that all students are able to take advantage of all educational opportunities available to them.

An International Study in Competency Education: Postcards from Abroad seeks to highlight components of competency education in international practice, to inform US policymakers and decision makers seeking to implement high-quality competency pathways at the state or local level. Other countries are studying our innovations, and we are studying theirs.

This report first reviews the definition of competency-based learning. A brief lesson in the international vocabulary of competency education is followed by a review of global trends that complement our own efforts to improve performance and increase equitable outcomes. Next, we share an overview of competency education against a backdrop of global education trends (as seen in the international PISA exams), before embarking on an abbreviated world tour. We pause in Finland, British Columbia (Canada), New Zealand and Scotland, with interludes in Sweden, England, Singapore and Shanghai, all of which have embraced practices that can inform the further development of competency education in the United States.

Over the last decade, the American education system has seen unprecedented transformation of teaching and learning as educators have grasped the power of new learning models to close achievement gaps and extend access to high-quality learning opportunities.

The next few years hold great potential to continue the incredible progress we have achieved—with new learning models that allow personalization of instruction for each student and a shift towards competency education that will ensure teaching and learning are built on a foundation of true mastery. These advances have the potential to close achievement gaps, prepare more students for college and career, and reduce inequities in our education system.

However, this shift cannot be sustained without changes in state policy. Laws, rules, and regulations written in the analog era must be adapted to support new learning models. States must ensure that students have access to a wide range of choices across the learning continuum, that those choices are of high quality, and that the necessary supports and infrastructure—funding models, data systems, and broadband connectivity—are in place to enable highly personalized pathways.

This policy brief provides concrete, actionable recommendations for state policymakers.

This report includes the key competencies and effective practices of teachers in successful blended learning environments? This research identifies 12 key competencies, organized into 4 larger domains: mindsets, qualities, adaptive skills, and technical skills. This tool is helpful for educators to understand their evolving role in blended learning environments, and it offers insights into the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to make make new instructional methods successful. Emphasis is placed on the mindsets, qualities, and skills that support practitioners’ creative and continuous improvement as well as ability to thrive amidst change.

Imagine a high school student who does not have the opportunity to take all of the courses she needs to get into college. Today, for far too many young people, this is a sobering reality. Public schools around the country may lack the resources, staff, or demand to offer a full catalog of courses. According to recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, many students do not have access to all the courses that will prepare them for college and careers.

The learning opportunities a student has in grades K–12 provide a vital foundation for success in college and career, and these early competencies particularly matter in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields.

Course Access provides an incredible opportunity to end once and for all the inequitable barriers to college and career-ready coursework. Thanks to Course Access, a student attending a school that does not offer high-level math course work will be able to access the courses he needs to be prepared for and succeed in college through the free, public education system. Course Access courses can be core, advanced, career and technical education courses, credit-bearing internships, online courses, or traditional courses offered in settings outside the school building.

Course Access provides an opportunity to meet the challenge of ensuring that all students have equitable opportunities to become college and career ready.

This CompetencyWorks brief provides an introduction to competency education with a snapshot of states’ policies regarding competency education. The report notes how states are advancing competency-based learning, and it describes eight ways that states can upgrade their policies.

This CompetencyWorks brief provides an introduction to competency education and insight into how federal policy can remove barriers and catalyze competency education. The report provides a snapshot of competency-based state policy throughout the U.S., and it explains what individual states are doing to advance competency education.

This report discusses a student-centered federal policy framework designed to advance the growth of competency education. The authors argue that the current traditional system fails students, and it is time to reframe quality, accountability, and access.

The traditional education system is often reinforced by federal, state, and local governments through outdated compliance requirements and funding structures. The success of competency education rests heavily on the federal adoption of a new student-centered policy framework. Read this report and discover how this proposed federal framework builds the capacity for systems change.